Marketing is an ever changing field which has many applications and techniques that are utilized by companies for the purpose of increasing their market share. Market Research: Marketing involves the analysis, research and tracking of the market to obtain new insights, trends, opportunities and threats. Marketing refers to the strategic process that an organization undertakes to identify its target market, establish strategic alliances to build mutual value for both, capture prospective value in return for capital and create multiple value channels to satisfy various stakeholders. It also involves the creation of marketing plans and executing them.
The emerging global economic recession has changed the concept of marketing. In this context marketing research and analysis have become important components of a company’s strategy to gain maximum advantage over competitors, reduce market costs, drive sales and maximize return on investment. This concept encompasses several elements such as advertising, branding, customer experience, direct marketing, digital marketing, e-marketing, web 2.0, social media, mobile marketing, web analytics, search engine marketing, website analytics, viral marketing, media planning and brand strategy.
The marketing concept has three layers – consumer concept, product concept and business concept. Consumer concept is the mental view of the customers’ thoughts and feelings towards a particular product. It includes their likes and dislikes, their purchasing power and their overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction. It is evident from the studies that when a product or service is offered to the consumers, their first thought is what they want or need from the product. Hence, product concept is not limited to marketing actions like advertisements but extends to how the product is being conceptualized by the consumers and what concerns them at a deeper level.
On the other hand, marketing research deals with the actual measurement of consumer satisfaction and selling concept. It includes conducting consumer surveys, focus groups, and online surveys to observe consumer behavior and buying habits. Surveys provide valuable insights into the buying pattern and reveal what the buying decisions of the customers are. This allows marketers to adjust their strategies accordingly. Market research also helps them in improving their strategies so that they can meet the expectations of the customers.
The third layer of marketing concepts is social marketing management. This refers to activities like public relations, advertising, and creating awareness through various media. Social marketing concepts are crucial for promoting the products and services on the internet as it provides more opportunities for the companies to reach out to a greater number of people. It also provides a forum for companies to generate feedback from their consumers and learn from their mistakes and improve their strategies for selling.
All the three layers discussed above have a commonality in promoting products and services on the internet. They do not, however, eliminate each other’s role. Each of the three marketing concepts mentioned above should be implemented together in a holistic fashion for maximum results. For instance, by understanding why consumers make buying decisions and then crafting an appropriate strategy for selling it, marketing myopia should be overcome by creating a positive product concept. Similarly, overcoming marketing myopia and creating a positive selling concept requires coordinated internet marketing activities.